Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell: Tuesday, May 27, 1873.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 185, 27 May 1873, Page 4

Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell: Tuesday, May 27, 1873.

A. Wellington telegram to Dunedin says the General Government have granted a dissolution of the Provincial Council. That they would do so was only to be expected. Mr Macandrew had these favourable advantages compared with Mr Reid and the other twenty-nine Councillors who opposed a dissolution: that two members • of the minority of the Provincial Council i who supported him, (Messrs Bathgate and . Reynolds, namely,) are members also of the Colonial Executive; and that Julius Vogel is no friend to Donaid Riud. And so it required no great amount of discrimination to foresee that the Superin- ! tendent, with his friends at Court, would j prove too much for Mr Reid, though Mr . Reid carried with him the majority of his fellow-Councillors in his protest against the dissolution, But, as we said last week, we fail to see any good that will result from a new election. It is quite plain that his Honor's non-acceptance of the Executive submitted '• to him by Mr Reid arose from the simple reason that Mr Reid had a place in it. This is proved by the fact that when Dr Webster tried to form a coalition Executive, the ToLMIE party raised an "insuperable objection" to Mr Reid having any connection with it. The majority in the

;r I Council—the party of whom Mr Rkid was leader—had already conceded, to the end that business might be no longer delayed, a great deal; they had consented to accept as members of the new Government ] two gentlemen of the minority ; but to jr expect them to agree that their leader should be debarred from holding office if 5 they saw lit to put him there, was to expect too much : it was no less an insult to je the whole of the members who ranged under his leadership than to the leader himself. And thus all hope of a coalition Government was at an end. The neces: sity.of a_ dissolution,asi ; thp,,only means of

getting out of the difficulty must therefore bo put down as arising solely from the , Superintendent's- antipathy to Mr Reid ; i and this is the only reason that, as his, Honor says in one of his messages just previous to to the prorogation, " the Council will have been "a fortnight in sessipn tomorrow without making the slightest progress in the practical business for which it was convened." His Honor blames'.the Council for seeking to force uncongenial advisers upon him : uncongenial not because he dislikes Mr Reid, but because, he says, Mr Reid is not prepared to support him in the " policy of progress" to which he was pledged when elected. The policy of progress excuse is simply " bunkum" on the part of his Honor. Primarily, in reality, he dismissed Mr Reid because he disliked him ; and he has lately refused to accept him as an acJ viser because he dislikes him still,; —worse than ever, perhaps. And it is because we believe this dislike to be the real and sole cause of the crisis, that we cannot see how a new election is going to improve matters : that is, if an election result in the return of Mr Macandrew,

and he of course expects it will. For our- \ selves, with Mr Reid's last explanation before us, we have doubts on the matter. But, if he be elected, it is certain that Mr Rhid will be returned to the new Council, and certain, too, that he will have nearly, if not quite, as large a majority there as in the late one j and how, then, will Mr Macamdrew act in the future? His feeling toward Mr Eeid is not likely to become more friendly ; especially should Mr Reid oppose him for the Superintend en cy. And believing, as we have said, that the whole difficulty has arisen from ill-feeling on the part of the Superintendent, we are of opinion that a dissolution will retard public business and occasion heavy expense without any good result whatever, —speaking, of course, with regard to the Province at large. Speaking locally, a good result will be that we shall get rid of that bright and shining light— Christopher Hickey.